Guardian Books podcast: French literature

Fiachra Gibbons reports from a festival of French books in Paris, where he finds an unlikely youth icon in Stéphane Hessel, while the Guardian's Jon Henley examines the myths and mysteries of French literature

In the second week of the Guardian's journey around Europe, we head off to France. Fiachra Gibbons goes to Paris's annual Salon du Livre to find out what all the fuss is about and makes an unexpected discovery – one of the stars of the show is a 93-year-old former resistance fighter, Stéphane Hessel.

Back in the studio, we quiz the Guardian's former France correspondent Jon Henley about the finer points of contemporary French literary life. How many bookshops are there in Paris and who is their answer to Henning Mankell's Inspector Wallander? We also take some tips from contributors to our World literature tour about the French literature we should all be reading.

Reading list

Wind, Sand and Stars by Antoine De Saint-Exupery (Penguin)Have Mercy on Us All by Fred Vargas (Vintage)Le Petit Bleu De La Cote Ouest by Jean-Patrick Manchette (Messageries du Livre)Indignez vous! (Cry out!) by Stéphane Hessel (European Schoolbooks Limited)Atomised by Michel Houellebecq (Vintage)La carte et le territoire by Michel Houellebecq (Editions Flammarion) to be published as The Map and the Territory by Heinemann in September